Maine Peapod by JaquesCousteau - Midwest Products - 1:14

[JacquesCousteau]

Thank you all for your kind comments!

 

The kit calls for painting the hull exterior with an accent stripe under the walnut rub rail, with a buff interior. From what I can tell, white hulls were quite common on small fishing boats. White paint was cheap and readily available. That said, I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of how it looks on a hull, as it's very bland. (This is one of the reasons I have no plans to make a Chesapeake skipjack or bugeye anytime soon--the traditional white hull with white deck with white hatches etc is very monotonous!) Moreover, white paint seems to highlight everything imperfection in the hull in a way that darker colors don't quite seem to. Finally, it also doesn't cover dark colors very well, and unfortunately, my wood filler is very dark.

 

So, although it may not be the most traditional, I've decided to paint this model with a dark green hull, set off by a white accent stripe under the rub rail. I've begun with the accent stripe, as it's the lightest color, painting an oversized patch of hull--the green should cover up the white pretty easily.

 

I gave it several coats and then sanded to somewhat smooth out the stripe, as can be seen below. I'm applying fairly thin acrylic coats, which thankfully dry pretty quickly.

 

My paints are about a year old by now and seem to be drying a bit in their bottles. This isn't a problem price-wise, as they were very cheap, but the paint is getting a little chunky and has some hard flakes that have marred the surface, needing to be picked off with an exacto knife.

 

And here we see it after several more coats, not quite ready. Many of the darker spots are shadows from slightly uneven planking.

 

After letting it sit overnight, I decided that the white stripe would be a bit too stark alongside the green. For the final coats, I mixed a tiny bit of brown in to get more of a cream color, which I think will work much better. After several coats, the stripe is now ready, and the next step on the exterior will be to tape over the stripe and paint the rest green.

 

I also started on the interior, mixing a bit more brown into the leftover cream paint to get more of a buff color. I needed more paint than I thought, and had to mix a bit more to cover at least under the riser. The color didn't quite match, but that's ok for the base layer. I'm going to need a lot more coats for the interior.

 

I'm still deciding whether to go for a buff interior, or whether I want it gray, which could also look sharp alongside the green.

[ccoyle]

Many traditional boat designs are still used today as pleasure craft, which means you can pretty much justifiably paint them any color you want.

[JacquesCousteau]

On 6/29/2024 at 4:16 PM, ccoyle said:

Many traditional boat designs are still used today as pleasure craft, which means you can pretty much justifiably paint them any color you want.

Excellent point!

 

I've made a bit more progress on the interior. First, a second coat of paint really helped to even things out. I think one or two more costs of paint will be enough.

 

However, before I get to that, I realized that I need to add the inwales. They've been cut to size and are drying into shape. I'm actually not clamping them now (although I will when I glue them), because the pressure from the breasthooks is enough to hold them in shape. After they're glued into place, I'll need to sand the ends of the breasthooks flush with them.

 

I also decided to color the seats and thwarts with stain. They aren't glued into place yet. They required a bit of shaping to fit properly--better that they're provided oversized and can be trimmed down than be provided in a size too small. Adding the thwarts really gives a sense of this model's large scale. Earlier, with the numerous frames and the use of thin strips for planking, the hull almost felt like it could be a smaller-scale model of a much larger vessel (by which I mean something around 30 feet in length), but that's not the case with the thwarts in place.

 

I also checked the fit of the knees, which I will also need to color. I'm debating whether to paint or stain them.

 

Once the interior is finished, I'll be able to fully paint the exterior. The end is in sight for this build, but I'm not there yet.

Edited yesterday at 04:13 PM by JacquesCousteau
Typo

[Paul Le Wol]

Jacques, the Peapod is looking great. And very nice colors too.